This invention relates to emergency evacuation equipment having particular applicability to aircraft. More particularly, this invention relates to an inflatable slide for emergency exits immediately over the wing of the aircraft.
The requirements for reliably evacuating airline passengers in the event of an emergency becomes more important as the size of the aircraft and the number of passengers increases. Emergencies on take-off and landing often demand swift removal of the passengers from the aircraft because of potential injuries from fire, explosion or sinking in water.
One obvious method of more quickly evacuating a large number of passengers, possibly five hundred or more, from a single new large aircraft is to provide more individual emergency exits. Preferably these exits should be positioned as close to the passenger seating as possible.
A substantial number of passengers' seats are normally located directly over the wing section of the low wing aircraft. Therefore, it is extremely desirable to locate emergency exit doors immediately over the aircraft wing so that the passengers can exit the aircraft by stepping out onto the wing and onto an inflated evacuation slide.
For military aircraft, and especially for large troop carrying aircraft, it may also be desirable to provide auxiliary wing exits on the aircraft to facilitate the unloading of a large number of troops as well as a large quantity of cargo in a short as time as possible, particularly at a time of crisis.
While it is obviously desirable to provide wing exits for large commercial and military aircraft, the passenger deck level of a low winged aircraft is often considerable higher than the upper surface of the wings. Emergency exits doors over the wing sections must therefore be located several feet above the wing. These design parameters complicate the design of suitable escape slides. Furthermore, the design of aircraft wings provides the upper wing surface with a substantial pitch. Consequently, to evacuate passengers from a wing exit the passengers must drop several feet from the exit opening onto a sloping surface. It is readily apparent that in an emergency, a substantial number of injuries may be encountered at such an exit during the hurried departure of the passengers if an escape slide being used were not of a sophisticated design.
In order to minimize the possibility of injuries at the emergency wing exits, it is desirable to provide some type of auxiliary evacuation equipment for use at wing exits that would compensate for the substantial drop from the exit door to the wing and the slope of the upper surface of the wing section. Further, in such situations, it is desirable to employ a slide of a design and construction which has a right angle turn for the passengers after leaving the aircraft before proceeding down the elongated portion of the slide to the ground. As can be understood, in such situations supplemental supports must be provided under the extended segment of the slide at the section where the slide bends downwardly over the aircraft wing since the slide at this juncture is no longer supported by the upper surface of aircraft wing itself.
In designing such emergency escape slide equipment, it is an absolute requirement that the equipment incorporate light weight features that would not add substantially to the weight of the aircraft. In addition, the equipment must be compact when not in use and capable of storage in minimum storage space.
As a result of the emergency nature of any aircraft evacuation system it is a further absolute requirement of any system that it be capable of reliable deployment and available for use in as short a time as possible.
Another feature desired in any evacuation slide equipment is that the equipment both in fact and in appearance provide the passengers with a sturdy and stable means for departing from the aircraft. This will assure the safety of the passengers. In addition, it will also provide the passengers with confidence in using the evacuation slide equipment.